


shared office space

by qrovers



Category: Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (TV)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Tenderness, it's abt the Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27123532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qrovers/pseuds/qrovers
Summary: A heavy, aching heart that longs for a married man.-Here sits two men in silence, well into their 40s, lived life long enough to be lonely, in a shared office space they’ve just settled into.
Relationships: Brad Bakshi/David Brittlesbee
Comments: 24
Kudos: 52





	shared office space

**Author's Note:**

> it's currently 3 am n i wrote this in an hour bc i read a siken poem lol i barely proofread this bc im tired but i'll probably do it in the morning

Here sits two men in silence, well into their 40s, lived life long enough to be lonely, in a shared office space they’ve just settled into. 

You see, it wasn't always like this. When Ian brought David on board as executive producer, his office was for him alone, like how Ian's office is, like how Poppy’s office is trying to be. It had a desk and a chair and a little bit too much space for his liking. He didn't complain, though, grateful for the door at all, but sometimes he'd leave just to leave, because the air gets suffocating too often. He’d walk around the office and say hi to the people he doesn't know well because what else can he do?

When Ian hired Brad, they didn't know where to put him. He felt too important to leave in the open space, but Poppy met him once at coffee and told him right to his face that she did not like him. Brad said nothing, not caring for her opinions, especially with Ian sliding his check across the table. 

Speaking of Ian and offices, David knows the man would much rather burn Mythic Quest to the ground than think about sharing his elevated, loft-sized office with another person, especially when that person is what Poppy calls a "bottom-feeding corporate leech." 

(That's her nickname for him, actually.)

Given that dilemma, David volunteered his office, even if he's never met this Brad person. 

When David does meet him, as he carried a box held together with a grip that's too tight, the handles were starting to wrinkle, he doesn't know what the big deal is. Brad put it down on his newly built desk and looked at David as he approached. 

David held out a hand to shake. Brad stared at it for a second too long. 

“I’m David Brittlesbee. Nice to meet you.” 

“Brad Bakshi. Thanks.”

And now back to the present. 

Two men. One office. A heavy, aching heart that longs for a married man. 

Brad doesn't know when it happened, when he started observing, when he stared at the ceiling of his bedroom and wondered what's the word that describes the ache of his chest when he feels it. 

Brad Bakshi is not an avid fan of love. In fact, his relationships have never been about it. His parents, his friends, they’ve never been that meaningful. It's always been about opportunity or benefits, respectively. 

He’d kiss guys in bars and they’d take him back where they drown in all their fears. Take him to where his place on their mattress will be taken by another hookup in the next week. He’s okay with that, lived life not caring enough to feel hurt. He leaves their sides by morning, though. 

This is different, what he feels with David. It's the patchwork he sewed onto his skin unfurling, spilling blood and tears and heartache all over the floor when he looks at him. Sometimes David catches him staring, when the sun is up at noon and he's inviting him to lunch because his wife bailed on him again. When the sun is going down and David has a messenger bag slung across his chest and he's saying goodbye and Brad tries to reply as he tries to ignore the hesitation before David leaves for good. 

This is different, what he feels for David. It's a collapse of his ideals, a wrecking ball of all his hard work. Not feeling anything only works when it's done in practiced routines, but if Brad ever found himself lying next to David in his bed, he would wake in it in the morning. 

This is different, what he feels for Brad. It's a month after the divorce when David notices the way he shifts when Brad comes in for the day, his fingers curl in and his shoulders square up and he feels like his entire world is up in flames. He feels bad for feeling, for looking back whenever he can and locking eyes almost instantly. It's an unwritten, unsaid rule, carved in imaginary stone that hangs in the silence of their shared office. 

The rule of conscious desire that's blocked by poor timing. 

David waits. And waits. And waits. 

A year later, Brad breaks this rule. 

It's late autumn, dwindling summer spirits haunting the empty spaces of the Mythic Quest office, most especially Brad and David's. 

For context, a few months ago, they found themselves at a crossroads, a snapshot of a moment that's fading in memory but not in feeling. They were in the break room or the parking lot or maybe they were in a different building entirely, the specifics don't matter. What matters is that they were together, breathing the same air, looking the same look, with the brush of their fingers and the perfect way David’s hand cups Brad’s jaw. What matters is that time has healed all of their wounds, put them in each other's orbits. There was nothing to stop them then.

David was standing up, looking down. Brad was sitting down, eyes trained straight at him. Two hearts yearn for something they have not experienced before. 

They're close. So close. 

But they don't do anything about it. 

Back again to the present, the time when they do. They're in their shared office space with summer ghosts. Lingering glances have not quelled but highlighted, born from regret of past choices. 

Here sits David Brittlesbee, doing his job the way he does, with his mind out the window and into a storm of feelings he should really articulate. 

Here enters Brad Bakshi, walking fast enough and hungry enough that when David sees him, he gets straight to the point. 

David says, “I have to tell you something.”

Brad answers, “Me too,” and kisses him full.

He leans down and strokes his cheeks with his thumbs and makes all of David's dreams come true. 

He kisses back. 

The next morning, Brad finds himself waking up in David's bed with a faint but pleasant memory of the night before. But when he turns to the middle of the queen-sized bed, he frowns, because he expected David but all he got was his outline on the sheets. 

But when he enters the kitchen, his heart refills with stardust and longing, because now he's looking back at David, who’s finally cooking for two again after a long while. 

And Brad finally finds the word he was looking for. 

  
  



End file.
